#I hit a pb of 28 seconds the other night because it was a record for a nightmare

[scatterpatter]

I think the funniest thing about the whole “not realizing instantly going into REM is a sign of narcolepsy or some other sleep disorder” is, on numerous occasions, literally timing myself on how quickly I can get myself to dream

And then realizing that Thats Not Normal and Most People Cant Do That

[captainbadfoot-blog]

47 Parks: 47 - The Beginning

Bushy Park

8th July, 2017

It felt good and at the same time quite strange to think that it was all coming to an end. In one way it wasn’t really ending at all – South Norwood, the 48th Greater London parkrun was starting the same day I was running Bushy, and Hoblingwell was due to start the week after,  but I had always planned for the last parkrun of my personal challenge to be Bushy. It made sense for me to stop where parkrun had began, and with what must be the biggest average attendance of any London parkrun. Besides, with the rate that new parkruns were springing up, the challenge could have dragged on forever. I will definitely get to the new ones, but with a little less urgency than before. It was time for a rest.

My brother Darryl had driven down from Ludlow to support me on the final parkrun of the challenge. It was quite fitting since he was the one who had introduced me to parkrun a few years back and had encouraged me to go with him to Bushy Park. It felt like it had all come full circle. Here we were again at Bushy Park. Only now I was doing it with the experience of fifty or so other parkruns behind me.

The course had changed since the first time I had been there, and due to me misjudging how far I had run (I don’t like looking at my watch during the run as it nearly always has bad news for me) I left the final sprint to the finish too late, but at least this meant I had more in the tank if I had needed it, which was good. And considering I had the Ludlow 10k later in the day this wasn’t a bad thing. It also meant that I was probably fitter than I thought after the slump in training due to the Achilles tendonitis. I was never going to get a PB this week, but that didn’t matter, what mattered was enjoying the last run of what had been a very long series.

The recent heatwave had made sleeping difficult over the past few nights, but I felt ok when the alarm went off, probably because the sun had slowly woken me up over the previous hour. I got up got dressed, had breakfast then checked I had everything I needed in my rucksack. Darryl had been kipping in the living room and was also now up. He was going to cycle back to where he had left his car in Hampton while I would catch a 65 bus from Ealing Broadway to Kingston and walk to Bushy Park from there where we would meet up.

For practically the whole journey I was thinking about timing and how I would feel if for some reason I got to Bushy Park late or not at all. This was the day I had chosen to end the challenge. If it didn’t go to plan I’d have to wait at least a week to try again, at which point South Norwood would be the 48th Greater London parkrun, and the compulsion to add it to my challenge would be powerful. Luckily the journey was quicker than I expected and with no hold-ups, so I got off the bus at Kingston station at about 8.15am, to head in the direction of the bridge.

Finding Bushy Park was fairly straightforward and I was soon following the path along the edge of the King’s Field, seeing a herd of deer grazing nearby as I headed in the direction of the car park. I got there and found Darryl. Even though there was still twenty minutes to go the area was very busy and a crowd of runners had already formed at the top of the avenue near the Diana fountain. I warmed up a little, did some stretching, then headed over to the start. The number of people there was immense compared to every other parkrun I’ve been to, but this was no surprise. Looking at the results pages for Bushy you will see that the number of runners is regularly over a thousand, with it rarely dipping below 900. This is where it all began with Paul Sinton-Hewitt and friends in 2004. This still felt very much like the beating heart of parkrun, a Mecca where every tourist would have to come sooner or later. The run director went through his messages then we were moving, slowly at first, then into a light jog, then a run. There were voices, there was puffing and panting, and under it all a steady, thundering rhythm. The rhythm of a stampede. A stampede of good will, of shared interest and the pursuit of positive change, improved fitness. It was a glorious sound.

Further on I drew alongside a group of men dressed in old military uniforms. I can’t remember what they were supporting or commemorating, but fair play to them – they must have been sweltering. They looked happy though.

Once the course reaches the end of the avenue, it hits Cobbler’s Walk then heads roughly East until it reaches Hampton Wick Royal Cricket Club where it turns left, then soon afterwards turns right before turning left again then heading northwest in the direction of Leg of Mutton Pond. Just beyond the pond it turns sharp right and heads all the way to Sandy Lane, where it turns left and runs parallel to Sandy Lane all the way to Chestnut Avenue where it turns left and follows the avenue for over a third of its length before turning left again back onto Cobbler’s Walk. It now heads back in the direction of Leg of Mutton Pond, but turns right before it gets there and follows a curving path toward Heron Pond, passing over the small bridge, and following the outside of the pond all the way to the finish funnel.

As well as being a beautiful location anyway, Bushy Park also has a fantastic one-lap course. I haven’t run this configuration before, otherwise I’d have known when to speed up near the end and sprint into the finish funnel. Although it did take a couple of minutes to really get going at the start due to the large crowd, I wasn’t really held back, and it didn’t affect my overall time. I still achieved a time I am happy with.

If you live locally to Bushy Park, and it was the only park you had ever run, you would have a good reason to be content. It’s a beautiful place with a great course and is extremely popular, so wherever you are on the course, and whatever speed you are moving at, you’re unlikely to be alone. That said, there are so many other parkruns out there, London itself having 47, sorry – 48 . . . Actually it might be 49 by the time you read this, and someone’s bound to want to bag the 50th Greater London parkrun soon, so . . . Numbers aren’t important, are they? Just bear in mind that with parkrun the numbers are likely to grow and keep growing. It doesn’t look like they’re going to drop any time soon. Speaking of numbers . . .

 Time: 22 minutes 28 seconds

Position: 165 out of 927

 There is definitely the sense of an ending right now. I will be running South Norwood (number 48) and Hoblingwell (number 49) soon. But as far as the challenge goes I had to draw the line somewhere, and Bushy was the best place to do so. I’m Lon-done for now. It’s been a very, very long challenge. I began last June, over a year ago, and with very few exceptions have run a different parkrun every week, getting up earlier than was sensible to trek across the capital. It has been an exercise in self-discipline, but it has paid off. I have seen more of London than I ever thought I would, and I have been amazed at how many fantastic parks and green spaces are in this city alone. We are utterly spoiled, and we should all be getting out and enjoying these places more. Who knows, they may not be around forever. After South Norwood and Hoblingwell I have a few more parkruns I’d like to visit, but I think I’ll hold off on setting myself any more challenges for a while. It’s nice to be flexible.

 And my favourite of the 47? Trying to work that out would be a pointless waste of time. They’re all fantastic for different reasons. I could choose Bushy because it’s the original and the biggest, Burgess because I recorded my fastest ever 5k time there, or Northala Fields because I ran it on my 40th birthday. But that’s the thing – on paper there is no way of determining which is the best. It’s all down to personal experience. If you want to know which of the Greater London parkruns is the best, you need to get your running shoes on and get out there.

 Just remember to set that alarm clock earlier on Saturday.

 Oh, and don’t forget your barcode.

  Dean Carter, July 2017